Slow Afternoon
by Dragonsbane1611
Summary: (SH-SN) It had been a lazy morning, and looking to be a slow afternoon. Neville busied himself with paperwork and watching his daughters play on the floor in the back office.


Note: This is one of a few transitional pieces between my little bursts of Neville and Luna goodness (NLG) and Simply Nevilleness (SN). All of my NLG and SN and those things in between is back-story for the epic 'Supposed Happiness' by MoonCroww. If you want to fully understand the whole situation and future events … toddle over and check it out. Thanks. ~Lady Roxyeth, Dragonsbane  
  
Slow Afternoon  
  
Sat.24.Jan.2004  
  
***  
  
Hearing the front door open and a squeal from Ivy, he spun to see her running through the door to the gallery.  
  
"Neville? Well, hello there … you," a familiar voice greeted.  
  
"Ivy, come back here," Neville called, stepping to the door. He glanced at Lotus, who was waiting patiently for him where he had set her beside the venomous tentacula. Others would have thought this reckless and foolish, but Neville knew otherwise. The tentacula never hurt either of his girls, and he couldn't really figure out why.  
  
There were more squeals and Ivy came running back into the office with Meshach and Mab, who had just really found her running legs. Hermione's eyes met his and they exchanged smiles.  
  
"Come on back," he invited, walking back to his desk where he had been poring over order forms and inventory lists. "What brings you here?"  
  
"Get away from that," Hermione shrieked, starting for Lotus. The tentacula waved a tentacle warningly at the woman, pulling Lotus out of her reach.  
  
"Hermione, it's okay. It likes the girls; takes care of them sometimes."  
  
Hermione looked at me with wide eyes.  
  
"Well, it doesn't take care of them, but it watches them. Lotus loves it. It won't hurt them."  
  
She didn't seem too convinced and looked warily at the hissing plant.  
  
"What about me?" she asked, taking a step toward it.  
  
"No! Don't, Mione," Neville shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. The tentacula looked ready to strike. "It will, on the other hand, hurt you. See how Ivy is keeping your kids away from it?"  
  
Hermione noticed the other three children watching from a safe distance.  
  
"Ivy could walk right up to it and swat it and it'd push her away gently, but she knows that if Mab," Hermione rolled her eyes at the use of the girl's nickname bestowed upon her by Ron, "were to approach it, it would hiss in warning and wait for you to take her away. I don't think it would hurt the kids. It hissed at Lily the other day, but Harry snatched her away, as unwilling as myself to find out otherwise."  
  
"Why does it do that?"  
  
"They take to the people that raise them."  
  
"But the girls?"  
  
Neville shrugged.  
  
"They look just like Luna?" he offered.  
  
Hermione conceded.  
  
Ivy called for Lotus and the tentacula let her wander away to her sister and friends. Neville smiled at the children and pulled a chair over beside him, offering it to his friend.  
  
"Thanks," she said as they both sat down.  
  
"What brings you into town today, Hermione?" Neville asked, though he knew the answer.  
  
"Flourish and Blott's was having a discount day so I went to see if there was anything I could add to my library."  
  
Neville chuckled.  
  
"What?" she inquired, looking at him pointedly.  
  
He shrugged, "I was just wondering if maybe I should let Ron and the kids move in with me so you can fit all your books in."  
  
"There's plenty of room for Meshach and Persephone," she scoffed, glancing to the four toddlers. "Ron, on the other hand …" Her voice trailed off and she looked to be contemplating the idea. Neville laughed and she nudged him, giggling.  
  
"Oh, look …" the man told her quietly, nodding toward the kids.  
  
Lotus and Ivy had found a potting of kissing daisies.  
  
"Is it alright for them to be playing with those?" she asked in hushed tones, quirking an eyebrow at him.  
  
"Oh, it's fine. Lotus loves them," he whispered, not looking at her.  
  
"What ar …"  
  
Neville shushed her and gestured toward his daughters.  
  
The girls took the flowers and Ivy handed hers to Meshach while Mab was given Lotus'. The Weasley children took them and Ivy and Lotus stepped back a little, trying not to laugh. The flowers seemed to turn slightly toward their new owners and planted kisses on their cheeks. Mab giggled and fell to her bottom and Meshach pulled it away, flushed and grinning. They then carted their gifts to their mother. Hermione smiled at the affectionate blossoms but held them away before they could kiss her.  
  
"Kissing daisies. Perfectly harmless," Neville explained, pushing back from the desk and going to the sink in the corner, filling a small vase with water and handing it to Hermione. When they touched the water, the stems twirled around one another and became still. "They do that when they're not in dirt and out of reach with human contact. Stay back at least the length of their stem if you don't want them to kiss you." She pushed the vessel back from her a little farther and admired them from a distance.  
  
"Very nice," she said to him, sitting back in her chair and eyeing the man beside her who had gone back to cross checking inventory and order forms.  
  
He sighed when he felt her eyes on him.  
  
"You don't have to do this, Hermione," he said, putting his quill down and looking back at her.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied, turning her focus to the children again. Ivy and Meshach had sat down on the cement floor, legs stretched out in front of them, leaning back on their palms. The girl seemed to be going on about something and he was listening intently with an amused expression. Lotus was handing Mab another flower, but Hermione didn't see where it came from.  
  
"It's just a plain daffodil," Neville told her following her gaze. "Lotus likes to surround herself particularly in the quiet, inconspicuous plant life. Honking daffodils find an eager friend in Ivy, but I don't let her near them often. They do my head in. Luna used to love them."  
  
He laughed a little at this, his eyes glossing over.  
  
"She used to put random bouquets of them around the house. Did you know she once put some in our room? Try sleeping with those things going off every three minutes."  
  
Hermione smiled sadly at him.  
  
Neville's eyes sharpened and he frowned at her.  
  
"Stop it, okay? I'm fine."  
  
She tried her best at an innocent face, but she had never been very good with things like that.  
  
"It's been almost a year and a half. If I was going to do something drastic, I would have done it by now."  
  
She nodded.  
  
"Arthur's going to go back to work next week."  
  
Neville nodded and remembered Mr. Weasley's dire attempt to end his life after the death of his wife. He had found a compatriot in Arthur Weasley when they'd moved him back to the Burrow after a stint in the hospital.  
  
"He told me the other day when he, too, came in to check on me. Harry was here the day before that and George stopped in yesterday."  
  
"Well, you've got the best nursery in all of London, magical or otherwise," she declared, shrugging as if this was obvious and he shouldn't question it.  
  
Neville furrowed his brow and she patted his arm.  
  
"We don't mean to harass."  
  
"You're not," he replied, honestly.  
  
"What are you doing for the twins' birthday?"  
  
He smiled a little at her elusiveness. The girls' birthday happened to also be his and Luna's wedding anniversary, but Hermione would never mention it.  
  
"I'm taking them on an outing after I close up," he said, matching her indistinctness.  
  
Hermione nodded in understanding.  
  
"Why don't you come by the house after? Ron can owl Harry and we'll have something special for Ivy, Lotus, and Lily."  
  
"I don't know, Mione, it's …"  
  
"Please, Neville."  
  
The man sighed and looked at his daughters, both outward reflections of their mother. On their first birthday, he'd taken them to visit Luna at the cemetery. Lotus gave her a honking daffodil out of Luna's own patch of them behind the house and Ivy spoke airily of something in the inaudible tongue of children that Neville had long since forgotten how to decipher. He'd then left them with Hermione and gone back to talk to her, as he did on her birthday and the anniversary of the day she died and any other day when he had something he wanted to tell her about.  
  
"Neville?"  
  
He decided for a moment.  
  
"Yeah, that would be nice. What time?"  
  
"Whenever you've finished talking to her."  
  
He smiled at his friend and she stood up.  
  
"We'd better be on our way if I've got a birthday party to set up for. Meshach. Persephone," she called. Starting for the gallery. Her children took her hands and followed her out. Hermione turned to him before leaving. "We'll see you tonight then, right?"  
  
"Wouldn't miss it," he responded with a wave. An elated squeal behind him made him turn and look at Ivy. She was giggling and clapping, her blue eyes twinkling. Looking at the venomous tentacula, he found her source of entertainment.  
  
"What were you getting into this time?" he asked Lotus, laughing, taking a step toward the hissing plant that had suspended his other daughter in the air by the seat of her pants. He took the child from the tentacle's grasp, giving his thanks to the plant for its watchfulness, and grabbed Ivy up in his free arm. Looking from one smiling face to the other he said, "Let's go see your mum." 


End file.
